Thursday, 31 May 2007

Morning Glory

“DaDDYYYYY!!” comes the cry. “What IS it?” I ask grumpily. It’s not early, but it is morning.

I continue trudging upstairs with the pink-cup-with-cats –on-it full of milk and turn left into the living-room.

“Daddy. Look!” exclaims my daughter, surprisingly brightly, considering there is vomit on the sofa, vomit on the floor and vomit all over her and her nightie. It looks like an ectoplasmic explosion.

“Oh poor you…” I stammer. I fall to my knees and open my arms, but then think better of it.

I go and fetch the kitchen roll. (Douglas Adams was wrong: the most useful item in the universe is a roll of recycled kitchen paper.) I wipe up the semi-digested grapes and pasta, pull her nightie over her head and then put her in the bath as I used to do when she was a milk regurgitator. After she is washed and dressed I finish up the cleaning process, using a fork to dig out all the lumps from the weave of the sofa, and plenty of wet cloth arm-work. It is somehow reassuring to return to the simple days of babycare.

Later my wife emails me: Thanks for cleaning everything up. You are a true stay at home dad!

That’s nice: recognition. That’ll keep me going for a while. I may be two years into the job, but somehow I feel that it’s only now I’m passing my probation

My daughter sits on the dry end of the sofa, watching Big Cook Little Cook with a look of mild disgust. She refuses my optimistic offer of breakfast, but sips the water I have given her.

She complains that she still has a tummy ache. I reach over and rub her stomach solicitously, gladly wiping away the hurt. She shifts a little. “Is the rubbing making it better?” I ask. She looks uncomfortable, and after a pause replies “No daddy”.

It used to be that the tummy rubbing made her feel better; now it seems mainly to be for my benefit.

27 comments:

Ugh sick - my most hated apect of small child care. They get better at getting to the loo in time as they get older.Tummy rubbing is nice to do, but think about it, if you'd just been sick, would you want someone touching your tummy?She's just got old enough to tell it to you like it is!

Poor soul - my girl has just had it too. I alwyas get her cleaned up, then out it comes again. Joy of joys. I always do the manic tummy rubbing too. Enjoyed your one about Hay below - I've ever been. You never know, people may be queuing to see you one day.

It's really weird that they are so bouncy after puking up...mine are almost elated. I always direct them to the bath on the premise that it's so big even they can't miss. They rarely miss but I then have to either pick all the bits out of the plughole or squish them through. So revolting.

I always try and rub their tummies and they always tell me not to. I'm sure my Mum used to rub my tummy and it was nice...kids of today, tsk.Hope she's feeling better, was it just a one-chunder wonder?Pigx

Oh. My. God! Yech... Number 3 son is more prone to getting colds, tonsilitis, etc. He hasn't puked for a couple of years. Damnit...now I've gone and said it he'll probably wake up swimming in it! Glad she (and you) didn't have to suffer through a repeat performance. Loved your comment about anal retention on my blog, made us laugh, thanks!

When "mine" were That Age, we also had a ballet student and 2 Law students living with us; this was years ago. One evening, the WHOLE household was ill...I was actually washing sheets in "sick" sucsession( Hmm, sorry, I meant " quick")throughout the night..BUT seriously, you DO miss them when they're gone...

Kids! Don't ya just luv 'em.My daughter loves being sick, she makes a really big thing of it then just like most kids, is on a high, wanting to eat everything in site. And she too ends up with a glass of water. You sound like you're doing a pretty good job to me. Crystal x